Darley’s Hot roster – Too Darn Hot returns and Ghaiyyath’s back as anticipation builds for Anamoe

Elite international stallion Too Darn Hot will spearhead Darley Australia’s 2026 stallion roster as anticipation builds for Godolphin’s most successful Group 1-winning racehorse Anamoe to have his first runners in the new season.

Confirmation that shuttler Too Darn Hot would return to Darley’s Kelvinside stud in the Hunter Valley at an unchanged fee of $275,000 (all fees inclusive of GST) comes as Anamoe’s fee of $110,000 was also left unchanged.

It comes as Darley elected to bring Dubawi shuttler Ghaiyyath back to Australia to lead its Victorian stallion roster at Northwood Park at an increased fee of $88,000 after being rested from shuttle duties last year.

The announcement of Darley’s full 16-horse roster, made up of nine stallions in NSW and seven in Victoria, comes just days after Godolphin retired Group 1-winning three-year-olds Tentryris and Observer to stud.

They are standing at fees of $88,000 and $33,000 respectively, with Observer to stand alongside his sire Ghaiyyath at Northwood Park.

In other fee changes, Darley has increased the service fee of Harry Angel, whose fee now sits at $88,000, four times the fee he stood at when he shuttled to Australia for the first time in 2019.

He has sired six southern hemisphere-bred stakes winners this season, including All-Star Mile victor Tom Kitten and Angel Capital, three times Group 1-placed in 2025/26.

“He’s a very consistent sire and he’s a great asset to us because he’s an outcross (stallion),” Pulford said of Harry Angel on the Straight Talk podcast.

“He’s completely new bloodlines for Australia, and I think we need that. We’re blessed to have him. He, of course, was a highly talented horse himself.

“He’s got some very high-class horses around him … whether it’s Angel Capital or Tom Kitten or War Machine, There’s plenty of them, and there’s plenty of back-ups. His percentages are excellent.”

Roster leader Too Darn Hot, one of three Dubawi-line stallions on the Australian roster, has sired Oakleigh Plate winner Tropicus and seven other southern hemisphere-bred stakes winners this season, including two-year-old Group 3 winners Tornado Valley and Shiki.

His champion son Broadsiding enters his second season at a slightly reduced service fee of $55,000.

“We’re taking a little bit off his price, which is the reality of the commercial market, and having a couple of new first season sires coming in, we didn’t want Broadsiding to get left behind,” he said.

“But judging just by the interest without even telling people the fees, there’s going to be plenty of support for him.

“He’s one of the best articles from that Dubawi sire line, a four-time Group 1 winner. There’s not that many of them about, and he’s a beautiful-looking horse.”

Anamoe’s first crop yearlings sold up to $1.1 million and averaged $383,038, such was the demand for the son of Street Boss’s stock.

“He has had every opportunity. He covered a great book of mares in his first year and that was reinforced by the way they sold,” Pulford said.

“They look great. They walk beautifully and the reports from the breakers are now coming in that they all seem to move well and they’ve got great minds.”

Amid an outcry from sections of the punting and racing public about the retirement of Tentyris and Observer, Pulford defended Godolphin’s approach, citing that the business needs to “wash its face” and standing commercial stallions went a considerable way to achieving that.

“These two are, from my knowledge, the only multiple Group 1-winning colts that’ll go to stud (this year) that are Australian-bred and raced, so that’s a rare feat in itself,” he said.

“Obviously, the local market loves local horses and they’re the ones that they’ve seen race, so we were reasonably conservative in our pricing. 

“And, judging by the level of interest in both colts, we could have gone a bit harder. But I think you’ve got to be able to sustain the price for a few years (in seasons two through to four).”

Pulford was also delighted that Ghaiyyath was returning to the Australian roster as the sire of five first crop stakes winners which as well as Observer includes Australian Derby placegetter Storm Leopard, Different Gravy and fillies Freedman Flame and Yum.

“He has proven himself a very, very exciting stallion,” he said.

“For the horse he was, he’s a multiple Group 1 winner, the best horse in the world of his era by Dubawi, who’s a superstar out of a Group 1-winning Galileo mare, he should have been standing at $50,000 or $60,000 in the first place, but because his stamina-oriented, he came in at $25,000, and it was a similar story up in (Europe). He has to do it off his own bat (and he has).”

Street Boss remains on the Victorian roster at an unchanged $66,000 while Bivouac, the sire of this season’s twice Group 1-winning three-year-old colt Beiwacht, will stand for $33,000 in the Hunter Valley. 

Victor Ludorum, a son of Shamardal, will not shuttle to Darley Australia this year after completing four southern hemisphere seasons at Kelvinside.

2026 Darley Australia service fees (inc GST)

Kelvinside, NSW

Too Darn Hot – $275,000 ($275,000)

Anamoe – $110,000 ($110,000)

Harry Angel – $88,000 ($66,000)

Tentyris – $88,000 (new)

Broadsiding – $55,000 ($66,000)

Bivouac – $33,000 ($55,000)

Pinatubo – $27,500 ($38,500)

Native Trail – $22,000 ($27,500)

Traffic Warden – $22,000 ($22,000)

Northwood Park, VIC

Ghaiyyath – $88,000 (returning)

Street Boss – $66,000 ($66,000)

Cylinder – $33,000 ($44,000)

Observer – $33,000 (new)

Brazen Beau – $27,500 ($27,500)

Kermadec – $11,000 ($13,750)

Paulele – $11,000 ($11,000)